


you better leave now

by yawnralphio



Series: Fictober20 [14]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Gen, Panic Attack, Trapped, fictober20
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27008374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yawnralphio/pseuds/yawnralphio
Summary: Buck and Eddie go underground on a rescue mission.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz
Series: Fictober20 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1967260
Comments: 5
Kudos: 54





	you better leave now

"This actually happens a lot more than you think," Buck was saying, his head lamp trained on the floor of the tunnel as they picked their way through it.

"Believe me, Buck. I've been a firefighter long enough not to question the lengths people will go to in order to prove their stupidity."

Buck snorted, his light temporarily blinding Eddie when he looked over. "Sorry," he muttered, turning his head back toward the ground. "Nah, this is different. There's all kinds of urban legends around here. See, people say that there's treasure somewhere in these caves. Pirates used to come in at low tide and hide their booty. Some people actually believe there's still gold stashed down here and get stuck, or lost, or drown."

They talked as they moved, slowly inching their way deeper into the caves off the ocean. The call came in at the very start of their shift; someone had indeed come down looking for treasure, and he'd been missing for hours.

Eddie didn't have much faith that they'd find him. He checked his watch and saw they still had over twenty minutes before Bobby expected them to turn back.

Buck reached the end of another story just as their tunnel emptied out into a wide cavern. A slow moving stream stretched across the expanse, moving toward the sea without much of a current.

"Wow," Buck breathed, his headlamp swinging around as he took it in. He looked first to the walls stretching out in both directions beside them, and then up at the ceiling. There were deep pockets in the rock, and dotting the stream were massive boulders directly below them.

A cold feeling settled in the pit of Eddie's stomach. "Call out for the guy," he muttered, moving along the wall where it was safer.

"Oh, right," Buck said. He yelled out the name of the man they were looking for and his voice bounced off the walls around them. In the distance, Eddie could just make out shadows on the far walls that could have been more tunnels. It was far enough away that his light didn't quite illuminate them properly enough.

Buck moved forward. Eddie followed until they were practically dead center in the cavern. He cupped his hands around his mouth to yell again, and Eddie plugged the ear closest to him. A beat of silence followed once Buck's call stopped echoing about them.

"Well," he sighed, turning in a slow circle, the bright beam of his headlamp searching the far walls. "Where do we go next?"

"Doesn't look like these go anywhere," Eddie said, nodding in the direction of the revealed alcoves. "Did we pass any other tunnels on the way in?"

"Not that I saw," Buck frowned. He put his hands on his hips and turned in a slow circle, his light trailing higher on the walls. "Do you hear that?"

Eddie tipped his head, listening for a voice. Instead there was the sound of shifting earth above them, a low rumble that was felt more than heard. He snapped his head back to look above them and counted one, two, five - too many boulders that could come loose any second.

"We need to move," Eddie urged. He hadn't taken half a step toward Buck when the sound of breaking rocks thundered around them, accompanied by a shadow just at the edge of his light.

He didn't think as he angled his body toward Buck and broke into a sprint. His shoulder collided with Buck's back and he shoved them both sideways to the ground. They sprawled into the water as rocks tumbled down from above. The sound of a dozen tiny splashes was covered by the thud of boulders colliding and crashing around them.

Eddie scrambled forward on his elbows and toes, searching frantically for the reflective stripe of Buck's gear. It was several long seconds before he realized he wasn't actually going anywhere. It was several more before he registered the pain blooming from his hip clear up to his ribs. He tried to take a breath, to cry out from the throb, and found that his chest couldn't expand any further. He groaned and instinctively curled his arms over his head to protect it, closed his eyes tight against the fear choking its way up the back of his throat.

The sounds of earth crumbling and crashing together slowed to a stop inside the cavern.

"Eddie?" came Buck's voice in the deafening silence that followed.

Eddie lifted his head slowly and looked around. "Yeah," he said weakly.

"Eddie? Where - oh my god," Buck choked on the words as he came into view. He splashed noisily through the shallow water and fell to his knees beside eddie. "Jesus, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

The questions fell from Buck's mouth at lightning speed, or maybe Eddie's brain was just slowing down. Either way, he raised his hand to stop the flow of words.

"I'm okay," Eddie groaned, afraid to test his theory. "I think."

"There is a couple thousand pounds of rock sitting on top of you, how the hell are you okay?" Buck leaned over him, his fingers finding Eddie's pulse.

"I think it's propped up on the other rock." He tried to slap Buck's hands away, but he couldn't get the right angle. The rock had him pinned half on his side with his belly toward the offending rock; he couldn't draw a full breath, but he could still get air. He was just good and truly stuck.

Buck's hand moved to Eddie's shoulder and squeezed. "You hurt at all?"

"Feels like I got kicked in the chest by a horse," Eddie admitted. He grabbed Buck's forearm, the only part of him within reach.

"Legs?" Buck lurched back onto his feet and his voice got further away. "I can see your feet!"

Eddie held his breath and told his ankles to flex.

"Okay, you're moving, that's good," Buck said quietly. He came back around the boulder and knelt beside Eddie again, fingers probing along Eddie's back and side as far as he could reach. When he was satisfied that there were no outstanding injuries, he sat back on his heels.

Eddie met his gaze. "I'm well and truly fucked, aren't I." He could raise his head far enough to get his it out of the water, but holding it at such an angle made his neck ache after only a minute or so.

"No," Buck insisted. He couldn't hide the fear and resignation from Eddie. He reached up to his forehead and pulled his headlamp free, propped it up in such a way that they could look at each other without being blinded.

Eddie breathed shallowly for several seconds, letting the information wash over him. He nodded after a moment. "Okay, then. Go get help before the tide rises."

"No," Buck said again, with a bit more feeling. "We've almost hit our time limit. Help is coming, and I'm staying right here with you."

"You better leave,  _ now _ , or I'm going to hit you the second you get me out of here."

Buck turned his head away. His jaw worked from side to side. He finally looked back down at Eddie and swallowed. "I can't."

"God damnit, Buck," Eddie hissed, and tried to gasp as pain lanced through his chest. He took a moment to control his breath, then demanded, "Why?"

Emotions played across Buck's face. Pain and fear and sorrow gave way to something else entirely, and Eddie realized that Buck was shutting him out.

Buck dropped his head. His voice shook ever so slightly when he said, "I can't, Eddie."

Eddie swallowed past the ache those words caused, a different kind of ache. He'd been told after the fact, after his recovery, about what Buck went through the last time Eddie was stuck underground. They'd never talked about it, but he still knew how Buck felt. He reached for Buck's hand and missed, instead finding his knee.

"I'm okay Buck, but I won't be if you don't go get help."

"This wasn't the only boulder that fell," Buck said grimly. He shook his head and stared down at Eddie, holding something back.

"What," Eddie groaned, closing his eyes.

Buck hesitated, then confessed. "The way we came in is blocked."

Eddie's body went cold as the last dregs of determined hope leeched out of him. Water seeped through his clothes, and he just couldn't bear to sit still anymore. Panic bubbled up and a sharp ringing sound filled his ears. He twisted as much as he could, ignoring the burning agony in his side in order to claw at the boulder. He just needed an inch, maybe two; if he could only breathe, if he could just move a little more, then he'd just be stuck in a room with Buck. He could handle that, he just couldn't take being under several tons of rock for one more second.

Buck splashed onto his belly and reached over Eddie, his fingers closing firmly around Eddie's wrists and pulling them away from the boulder.

"Eddie," Buck said, his voice breaking.

Eddie fought against Buck's grip, but the angle was wrong and he had no leverage. He clawed at Buck's forearms instead, his nails catching on skin. Buck ignored it and leaned closer, his eyes hard.

"Diaz! Stop fucking moving!" Buck shouted in his face. He pressed Eddie's arms to the ground and crawled over them, then slapped his hand over Eddie's mouth. The ringing sound fell away. Eddie breathed shallowly and stared up at Buck. He finally stopped struggling and Buck loosened his grip. "You have to stop moving or you'll crush yourself to death," Buck said bluntly, pressing his forehead to Eddie's.

"Sorry," Eddie said weakly. He exhaled on a whimper as the aftershocks of a panic attack worked through him.

Buck patted his cheek and pushed up enough to look him in the eyes. "I'm not going anywhere without you," he promised. His hand stayed put on Eddie's face, a welcome warmth amid the cold water that surrounded him.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://yawnralphio.tumblr.com).
> 
> Reblog [here](https://yawnralphio.tumblr.com/post/631965299862798336/14-you-better-leave-now-fox-911-trapped).


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